Immature Stages and Life Cycle of the Wasp Moth,Cosmosoma auge(Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae) under Laboratory Conditions

Gunnary León-Finalé,Alejandro Barro

doi:10.1155/2014/328030

Abstract

Cosmosoma auge(Linnaeus 1767) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) is a Neotropical arctiid moth common in Cuban mountainous areas; however, its life cycle remains unknown. In this work,C. augelife cycle is described for the first time; also, immature stages are described using a Cuban population. Larvae were obtained from gravid wild females caught in Viñales National Park and were fed with fresh leaves of its host plant, the climbing hempweedMikania micranthaKunth (Asterales: Asteraceae), which is a new host plant record. Eggs are hemispherical and hatching occurred five days after laying. Larval period had six instars and lasted between 20 and 22 days. First and last larval stages are easily distinguishable from others. First stage has body covered by chalazae and last stage has body covered by verrucae as other stages but has a tuft on each side of A1 and A7. Eggs and larvae features agree with Arctiinae pattern. Pupal stage lasted eight days, and, in general, females emerge before males as a result of pupal stage duration differences between sexes.

Highlights

Cosmosoma is a large Neotropical moth genus with approximately 155 species [1], and some of them are broadly distributed
Dyar [2] described C. myrodora immature stages from a Florida population and Castillo [3] described C. myrodora larval and pupal stages duration which were fed with three Mikania species, but no instar duration or larval morphology were taken into account
Other host plants reported for C. auge in HOSTS databases are Cecropia peltata (Cecropiaceae), Ipomoea sp. (Convolvulaceae), Lagenaria siceraria (Cucurbitaceae), Mikania pachyphylla, M. parviflora, and M. scandens (Asterales: Asteraceae) [4]

Summary

Introduction

Cosmosoma is a large Neotropical moth genus with approximately 155 species [1], and some of them are broadly distributed. In Cuba, it occurs throughout the main island with big populations in the main mountainous areas. As in other moth taxa, knowledge about immature stages of this genus is lacking and there are no descriptions of their life cycle. Dyar [2] described C. myrodora immature stages from a Florida population and Castillo [3] described C. myrodora larval and pupal stages duration which were fed with three Mikania species, but no instar duration or larval morphology were taken into account. Wild larval ecological traits are unknown for Cosmosoma species. In this paper we describe life cycle and larval stages for Cosmosoma auge from a Cuban population. We report a new host plant for this species and some immature ecological traits. Other host plants reported for C. auge in HOSTS databases are Cecropia peltata (Cecropiaceae), Ipomoea sp. (Convolvulaceae), Lagenaria siceraria (Cucurbitaceae), Mikania pachyphylla, M. parviflora, and M. scandens (Asterales: Asteraceae) [4]

Materials and Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusions